[OLPC-Oceania] virtual and neutral

[Lawrence Stephens]

Sean,

Thanks for your thoughts on OLPC. We are reading with interest. We are simple folk who watch with great joy as kids far from roads and electricity are picking up their laptops and discovering things they never imagined, reading books no one was ever able to deliver to their school before and developing skills more privileged kids take for granted. We can see that there are imperfections and that everyone involved in the program is learning. But, as you all work through these issues, I see the kids we have introduced to OLPC as being far ahead of where they were only a few months ago. We have confidence it  will be better and better as the issues you are all seeing are addressed and more opportunities made available to the kids in places we work.

Best wishes,

Lawrence Stephens

Lawrence Stephens
Program Manager
Community and Social Investment
PNG Sustainable Development Program Ltd
Phone: +675 3087502

From: olpc-oceania-bounces at lists.laptop.org [mailto:olpc-oceania-bounces at lists.laptop.org] On Behalf Of Sean Linton
Sent: Friday, 4 February 2011 11:09 AM
To: olpc-oceania at lists.laptop.org
Subject: [OLPC-Oceania] virtual and neutral

Thanks for getting back to me those people who have off the list.

OLPC is a world wide movement, and the places the computers go to have their own pedagogies, I can see their being some issues in inheriting an embedded pedagogy within this technology. The thing to remember maybe that OLPC also contains a learning environment which has its own consequences, which on one level is a neutral learning environment -  that assumes universal recognition of symbols and on screen aids.

Even if the embedded pedagogy of OLPC is an experiential learning environment in itself this doesn't mean that an inherited pedagogy will begin to disappear (that 'social missions' are competing) maybe just that it is a sign of what can be expected, and needed to prepare children for growing into adults in the 21st century.

One way these two backgrounds (or pedagogies) may complement each other, and I think OLPC and Sugar are already on the way to doing this is by trying to  balance creating a neutral learning platform and encouraging virtual learning environments. Virtual learning environments are powerful because they may contain cultural metaphors, however they can also feel limiting where the user is bound by what is already familiar. The strengths of a neutral learning environment include a sense that what is possible is not already defined. How broad do people think the metaphors contained with the activities should be? Can anyone relate to the metaphor as an effective way of making sense of a new experience, perhaps with a specific activity?

Sean
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